As Ben Wright approaches retirement, the renowned scholar celebrates a career unraveling the mysteries of the Second Temple period and advancing fresh perspectives in early Judaism studies.
Ben Wright has focused his decades of assiduous scholarship on an eventful and sometimes obscure segment of Jewish history known as the Second Temple period (c. 300 BCE–70 CE). It is a slice of the past shrouded by both time and the strange provenances of the many documents historians rely on in their work, understanding, and reconstructing to the degree possible, what has come before us.
A leading expert in the field, Wright has a gift for opening the curtains on history in a way that illuminates the richness and complexity of the issues of the moment, and the way the lives of those who lived in these societies differ from—and in some surprising ways resemble—our own.
Spotlight Recipient
Benjamin Wright
University Distinguished Professor